68 GTO project update - phase 1

jmt455 · 01-07-2013, 06:56 PM

Thought you might enjoy a little project update...

I bought this car in March, 2012. It's a Fremont-built GTO that has apparently spent its life (til 2011) in California and Nevada.

I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of pictures, but did not go to Nevada to look at the car. Here are a few of the seller's pics:

I knew it needed trunk floors and lower LH quarter repairs, as well as a patch in the left fender.

According to the seller, he bought the car (as a roller) in the mid-90s and started building it. He had installed a 1969 "big car" 428 and a TH400 with either a 2.93 or 3.08 posi. It was originally a non-hideaway car, but the seller had installed hideaways. They were not working and the vacuum hoses and switch were missing.

It ran, but the brakes were not working well.

Here is what it looked like when it arrived in Michigan in early April:

The black paint was mostly rattle-can touch ups to cover bare metal.

After spending some time checking it out, I decided to get it roadworthy and drive it as much as possible over the summer (2012), then get it ready for a winter paint job. My target was to have it on the road for the Woodward Dream Cruise in August.

After going through the fuel system and the brakes, I started cutting out the trunk floor and found that the left quarter was worse then I anticipated. Typical...rust is like an iceberg; what you see is about 10% of what's really there!

Surprisingly, the trunk braces and fuel tank supports were in great shape.

Continued in next post (could only include 10 images per post)...

jmt455 · 01-07-2013, 06:59 PM

Had to purchase and/or fabricate a bunch of patch panels and had to replace the panel between the rear window and the trunk opening; it was really bad...

Got all that stuff done between April and July and pushed to have it on the road for August...

Rally wheels re-done:

Interior cleaned up, repaired an old, cracked steering wheel to replace the Buick wheel that was in the car, got the gauges working, got the dash pad crack repaired:

Pulled the 69 bumper off, refurbished the headlight mechanisms and the grilles/doors:

Next post: How it looked in August.

jmt455 · 01-07-2013, 07:17 PM

MADE IT![

]
Had it drivable by July 30.

A few rattle cans of flat black, and this is how it looked when we hit Woodward for the Dream Cruise:

After the Dream Cruise and a few more short trips, I started prepping the body for paint.

I brought it out to the painter and he recommended stripping it to bare metal. A few old repairs were obvious and he wanted to make sure he knew exactly what was under all that flat black paint and old "hi-build" polyester primer.

Lots of DA time yielded some ugly surprises.
Looks like the car sideswiped a guard rail early in its life...

There was a triple crease running from just ahead of the door opening almost all the way to the rear wheel opening and even into the rear section of the quarter.

Must have happened a long time ago; the only paint under the repair material was the original primer and black lacquer!

I spent a LOT of hours on the Endura bumper. The bumper was sandblasted down to the bare ruber/urethane base. I opened up the worst of the cracks, filled all the holes and re-shaped contours with a special flexible epoxy material. Lots of work...

Here's how it looked when it went to the painter:

I'll post a paint shop update later this week.

In the meantime, I've been busy on the seats. Got the rears and the passenger seat done:

Instg8ter · 01-07-2013, 07:43 PM

wish i would have known you were there JMT, spent the whole day with the Widetrack club at the Pontiac turnaround to go South. Great time, free lunch and tons of Pontiacs. heres some pics before the camera batteries went.

dreamcruise 12 Photos by instg8ter | Photobucket

jmt455 · 01-08-2013, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Instg8ter

wish i would have known you were there JMT, spent the whole day with the Widetrack club at the Pontiac turnaround to go South. Great time, free lunch and tons of Pontiacs. heres some pics before the camera batteries went.

dreamcruise 12 Photos by instg8ter | Photobucket

Small world!
I'm a member of the Widetrackers, but I didn't park in Pontiac this year.
My daughter comes back from Chicago every year for the Dream Cruise and we usually park in Birmingham and walk from Maple to 12 Mile.

I might park with the club next year if we change our "normal" routine.

I'm in Troy; where are you located?

Instg8ter · 01-08-2013, 06:27 PM

I'm Downriver in New Boston (just south of Metro off I-275), used to work in Berkley and designed and printed most of the Merchandise art for the first 3 years, before it got HUGE. Took me 3 hrs on the way out to get from Pontiac to 12 mile, good test for the new cooling system....lol. Hope to catch you this year, that car should be nice and shiny by then, keep up the good work.

jmt455 · 01-11-2013, 12:29 PM

Pics from the body shop...

These first pics are from early December.

Quarter skin removed, all hidden surfaces prepped for new skin installation:

Test fit new quarter skin:

Two weeks later, I returned to see that the car was wearing its first primer coat:

The door skin is loose and awaiting replacement:

New Dynacorn door skin. Turned out to be a very nice piece:

These next few are from December 20:

Doors are off and the rest of the body wears black base and clear from the A pillars back:

As of January 7, the car is painted from the firewall back and he's now working on the fenders.

Hit my 10 image limit....more to follow.

jmt455 · 01-11-2013, 12:30 PM

We are going to replace the "Soffseal" deck lid weatherstrip; it is so thick it is holding the decklid up about 1/4" above the quarters. When we re-installed the original weatherstrip, the fit was perfect...

Compared the cross-section and found that the Soffseal part is more than 1/4" taller than the original part. Left the trunk closed for a week and it still didn't collapse enough to allow reasonable opening and closing efforts. The weatherstrip is pushing the decklid up with so much force, it was impossible to open the trunk with a key.

I'm going to try the weatherstrip from Inline Tube; they tooled that part themselves and it is supposed to be identical to the original section.

Here you can see the same seal issue with the door. The SoffSeal part is harder and taller than the original seal. This is how the door fit looks after a full week of compressing the seal with the door closed. It's held out about 1/4" beyond the quarter surface. Without the new seal, the fit is perfect.

We are going to give this some additional time; if it doesn't compress enough, I might be replacing the door seals, too.

Hood & bumper will be last.
The hood has some low areas that need to be corrected:

The body has been cleared, but still needs to be blocked and polished.

Next, I will be finishing the seats, dash cluster and rear bumper.

FlambeauHO · 01-11-2013, 01:11 PM

I wonder if you got a bad batch from soffseal of something, all mine fit beautifully. Although I did buy the kit several years ago...Car is looking great, good luck!

Instg8ter · 01-11-2013, 07:45 PM

when you install the softseal stretch it a little all the way around and dab a bit of silicone under it to set it, had the same problem with mine, they will start out a little high but as they get compressed will settle into position. think i ended up cutting around 4 " off after i stretched the trunk seal.